Treasure-hunting Sanford family strikes gold — again

Holidays are a lucky time for a treasure-hunting family from Sanford, Florida. Last year on Labor Day, the Schmitts made national news when they pulled several pieces of a solid gold chain - more than 60 feet in all - from the water off the coast of Fort

Holidays are a lucky time for a treasure-hunting family from Sanford, Florida. Last year on Labor Day, the Schmitts made national news when they pulled several pieces of a solid gold chain - more than 60 feet in all - from the water off the coast of Fort

Last year on Labor Day, the Schmitts made national news when they pulled several pieces of a solid gold chain — more than 60 feet in all — from the water off the coast of Fort Pierce.

Then in the same place during Memorial Day weekend, they found their first major haul this hunting season: an intricate religious artifact lost in the Atlantic Ocean for nearly 300 years.

"It was our follow-up to our big find," said Lisa Schmitt, whose family owns the company Booty Salvage and hunts for sunken artifacts on Florida's Treasure Coast. "It's been there 300 years, and it's still intact. It's just amazing that it's not broken."

Their latest discovery was the back portion of a handcrafted gold-filigree pyx, a vessel used to hold the Eucharist, or the symbolic representation of Jesus' body during the Christian observance of Communion.

The Schmitts' find weighed about 1 ounce and was about the size of "an iPhone with a case on it," Schmitt said. Her son Eric discovered the piece.

It dates back to the late 1600s or the early 1700s, experts told Brent Brisben, co-founder of 1715 Fleet — Queens Jewels LLC, the company that owns the rights to dive on the wreckage site where the gold was found.

"This pyx would have belonged to a very high-ranking church official and, given its incredible craftsmanship and beauty, may have been destined for the pope," Brisben said.

Each time the Schmitts struck it big, the gold was discovered about 150 feet off the coast of Fort Pierce in only about 15 feet of water. And the finds were no fluke.

The centuries-old loot came from a fleet of Spanish ships struck by a hurricane off Florida's coast in July 1715. More than 1,000 people were killed in the storm that claimed 11 of the dozen ships that were en route to Spain.

Some of the gold, silver and other artifacts that spilled across the ocean floor was recovered in the years after the storm, but many treasure hunters and historians think millions of dollars in silver and gold still remain, according to the Queens Jewels website.

When the Schmitts go searching every summer, the state gets the first pick of their finds. Up to 20 percent of the rarest treasure will be displayed in museums. The rest will be split between Brisben's company and the Schmitts.

"This really has become probably the most unique artifact that has ever come off the 1715 fleet," Brisben said. "It hasn't been appraised yet, but I'm calling it priceless."

With the pyx remnant's ornate gold weaving and 300-year-old history, the relic needs nothing else to be considered special.

But Brisben said there is more to its story.

In 1989, another treasure seeker found what was long thought to be an ornate picture frame — because of the gaping rectangular hole in its center — that sank with the Spanish ships.

But when the Schmitts' piece, which was initially found bent and lodged in the sand, was restored, it fit perfectly into place inside the "picture frame." Both pieces, it turns out, formed the complete religious artifact known as the pyx.

"We knew immediately when we found it," Schmitt said. "The 'picture frame' was such an iconic piece."

When the Schmitts' discovery and the "frame" are fitted together, the small pyx still weighs in at less than half a pound.

The "picture frame" spent about 23 years on display in the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West. Two years ago, it was turned over to the late Harold Holden's estate. Holden owned the rights to the shipwreck area when the frame was found. It is now in possession of a woman who once worked with Holden, Brisben said.

Although possible, it's unlikely that the state will take possession of the pyx backing because the rest of the artifact is privately owned.

If the state doesn't keep it to display in a museum, and it's ever sold, the Schmitts and Brisben's company will split the proceeds.